By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated clumnist
First published in print: 08/03/2014

What does "patient safety" have to do with the catastrophic 2003 explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, killing all seven of its crew members?

A lot, according to patient-safety experts. They regularly discuss the Columbia disaster as a classic case study of the potential for silence to kill -- whether in an organization like the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) or a large health care system like the VA. Silence, it's been shown repeatedly, can be deadly not only when individuals don't speak up about problems risking human safety, but also when organizations silence those who do. (more…)

Journalist Rebecca Skloot’s new book is a gripping read that embodies all abstractions about research ethics in a compelling tale about Henrietta Lacks – a woman whose microscopic cancerous cells shook the world’s medical establishment in 1951.